MANILA, Philippines — A warning by the University of the Philippines School of Statistics (UP STAT) against the proliferation of surveys with unclear methodologies has recirculated online amid the declaration of several personalities of their potential candidacies in next year’s elections.
UP STAT called out “the pervasive abuse of survey methodologies by some entities doing their own brand of research and promoting them on social media.”
The warning was originally published in February 2022.
“We have been observing these practices, including surveys not based on random sampling, such as videos of ‘kalye surveys’ being done by some vloggers and suspicious online surveys, especially on Twitter and Facebook. We are dismayed by their cavalier disregard for the principles of data gathering,” the statement read.
It also called out public relations companies, private individuals and some media organizations that publish results of surveys with unclear methodologies.
UP STAT stressed that “surveys reveal facts, beliefs, sentiments and opinions based on a representation of the population.”
However, the quality of any inference cannot rise above the quality of the methodology it is based upon.
“Sample selection strategies can generate bias in the data collected in surveys. For instance, this happens when the sample tends to favor a segment of the population.
“Data collection processes may also generate bias, such as when an interviewer purposely affects the answers of the respondents. Biased methodologies will only give biased results,” they added.
The professors urged the public to be critical of surveys and not to immediately accept results as they are.
“Be mindful if the sample is of appropriate size based on, but not limited to, a target margin of error, level of confidence and nature of the target population. How was the sample selected? Which sectors of the population, if any, are being represented?” they said.
Several persons, including Commission on Higher Education Chairman J. Prospero De Vera III, were among those who reshared the statement on social media.